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Brady Score

Shooting for Liberty

States competing for lowest Brady score

by Jeff Knox

The Brady Bunch has released their annual scorecard rating states
based on how strict their gun laws are. The scorecard is a very useful
tool to help rights groups understand how their state compares to others
on a liberty scale; more points = less liberty.

Alaska, Arizona, and Utah have all achieved the coveted Zero
Points/Zero Stars on the Brady scale and are now competing to see which
state will be the first into negative numbers – which is possible
through bonus points. Arizona and Alaska can reach a –2 point score by
protecting carry rights on campuses of state colleges and universities.
Utah already has such protections, but could achieve a –2 score by
adopting Constitutional (permitless) Concealed Carry as Alaska and
Arizona have. Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, and
Oklahoma all came in with just 2 points apiece and all have a real shot
at beating the leaders into negative numbers with the right combination
of reforms.

The Brady Center released this latest scorecard with much hoopla and
heavy breathing, but their own data clearly shows that there is no
correlation between gun control and criminal violence. Crime statistics
vary widely - from high to virtually non-existent among the 40 or so
states Brady ranks as "poor," while several of the Brady's highest
ranked states have some of the highest rates of violent crime. As a
matter of fact, a full 25% of all violent crime in the US occurs in the
Brady's top four states with the most severe firearms restrictions. Of
course the Bradys and their political allies argue that the tight
restrictions are a response to the high crime, but most of the
restrictions have been in place for years, if not decades, and they have
proven to be completely ineffective at reducing criminal violence.

Violent crime is a result of numerous factors, with poverty,
population density, education, social and moral supports, and drug and
alcohol abuse being chief among them. While it is difficult to prove
whether fewer restrictions on firearms results in less crime, it is easy
to demonstrate that stricter gun laws do not reduce violent crime – or
accidents or suicide.

Even if strict gun laws could deter violent crime in general, that
would be outweighed by the immorality of denying citizens the basic
right to protect and defend themselves, their families, and their
communities. These core rights cannot be justifiably discarded based on
the bad behavior of a tiny minority of the population. History and an
endless array of scientific studies – and the Brady's own simplistic
scorecards prove that gun control laws do not save lives, do not reduce
crime, and do not "protect the children," despite the hoplophobic
rantings of the Brady Bunch and their so-called Campaign to Prevent Gun
Violence. Even their name is a lie. They do not campaign to prevent gun
violence, they campaign to restrict lawful access to firearms and limit
legal firearms ownership. I have never seen any Brady propaganda
proposing or supporting initiatives that might actually reduce violence;
only an ongoing crusade against gun owners.

The Bradys do serve a useful purpose however, they highlight the
threats to liberty posed by hoplophobes and politicians who don't
believe the citizens can be trusted, and they give rights activists a
better idea of how liberty is being subverted in various states. This
latest Brady scorecard shows that the vast majority of states are
effectively combating those who would infringe on the right to arms.
Forty of the fifty states scored 25 points or less, while thirty one
states scored 8 or less. Reports from state legislatures around the
country indicate that scores will be lower next year. Virginia rights
leaders are already celebrating an expected promotion to a "Red State"
on next year's Brady map as they will move down at least 2 points from
last year's embarrassing 12 to a much more respectable 9 points. They do
acknowledge that they still have a lot of work to do though as better
than half the states will still have lower scores.

We at The Firearms Coalition would like to express our thanks to the
Brady Bunch and their cohorts at the Legal Community Against Violence
(another deceptively named anti-rights group, which actually compiled
the data the Bradys used) for providing us with this valuable
information and offering incentives for states to compete in this race
to preserve liberty.

"Shall Issue" will lower it by another two points, giving us a score of 10 and a ZERO STAR rating. Woo-hoo!

Keep in mind, that despite the Media constantly quoting the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (formerly Handgun Control, Inc., which is what their domain name was registered under) has ~50,00 members. The National Rifle Association has over 4,000,000 members. That's a membership ratio of at least 80:1, kind of like comparing Apples and Peas.

"Alabama has weak gun laws that help feed the illegal gun market and
allow the sale of guns without background checks, according to the Brady
Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence."

Yes, that's true, you don't need an FBI NCIC Background Check in order to give a firearm to your son or daughter. Remember that you are always bound by laws prohibiting certain individuals from firearm possession. You are legally responsible if you give or sell a firearm to such a person.

You can tell the Brady
Campaign's intention by the way their scoring system is phrased...

Alabama receives 2/2 points becasue "Employers not forced to allow firearms in parking lots". In other words, citizens may be forced by Employers to travel to and from work unprotected. HERE's an educated discussion on the subject.

Alabama receives 2/2 points becasue "Colleges are not forced to allow firearms on campus". Actually, only school policies deny legally permitted students from carrying firearms. Other citizens are not prohibited.

Alabama receives 2/2 points becasue of "Law enforcement discretion when issuing CCW permit". This is sort of a misnomer. The local Sheriff does have descretion when issuing a Pistol Permit (the Alabama term), technically making Alabama a "may issue" state. The way I have seen it applied is in using the descretion to issue a permit to citizens under 21 years of age.